There is no declaration of war. There is no statutory authorization. There is no national emergency here. This latter is self-evident by the WH's own statement And have no doubt — we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner our choosing.
Look, I don't like the fact that we have troops stationed in Qatar, Iraq, Syria, on the Iraq/Syria borders in Jordan, UAE, etc. But we do. They threw something at us, we need to throw something back. The response should be targeted, appropriately weighted, and leave a mark. And it should also be authorized as appropriate by congress. This is not a national emergency situation. To argue such is completely divorced from reality, so right on the mark for American ME policy generally.
This appears to be dragging out, so maybe they are trying to navigate how to save face without triggering outright escalation, or maybe they are running things through the appropriate process. Either way, hopefully there is a signal there and we can avoid escalation.